>> Friday, February 19, 2016

As this paper goes to press, the Commission on Elections is set to hold
simulated elections in 20 cities and towns across the country, covering more
than 25,000 registered voters.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the mock elections would provide
the poll body the opportunity to correct or improve the procedure at the
polling and canvassing centers during the elections. If the Comelec won’t be
able to fix these problems like glitches of Smartmatic machines, expect chaos
come election time. We could have a president elected not by popular vote by
machines manipulated to come out with results in favor of candidates.

***

“Through these mock elections, we can see which aspects of the elections
need to be enhanced, corrected or improved so that on May 9, we can have a
smooth and orderly election,” he said.

Among the barangays where the mock elections would take place are
Tuktukan and Western Bicutan in Taguig City, Poblacion and Aguho in Pateros,
Bagong Pag-asa and San Isidro Labrador in Quezon City, and 669 and 649 in
Manila.

Other barangays where the simulated polls would take place are
Poblacion Oeste and Pugaro in Dagupan City as well as Poblacion and Linmansangan
in Alaminos, both in Pangasinan; Centro 1 (Poblacion) and Nambalan Norte in
Tuguegarao City as well as Centro 1 (Poblacion) and Paddaya in Aparri, both in
Cagayan; Poblacion and Osiao in Sorsogon City; and Camcaman and Calintaan in
Matnog, also in Sorsogon, Albay.

Through these exercises, the Comelec said it
intends to test and ensure adequate security, accuracy, system and functional
capability and integrity of the vote counting machines, transmission devices
and consolidation and canvassing system.

The Comelec is also aiming to simulate the process of election,
deployment, actual voting and consolidation of votes, as well as transmission
procedures and “to develop public confidence and acceptance of the automated
election system.”

The Comelec earlier hinted that some precinct count optical scan (PCOS)
machines were malfunctioning and failing to correctly read the ballots and may
have been a result of a glitch in the source code.

The new vote-counting machines were reportedly rejecting one to two
percent of the ballots during tests.

***

This was reportedly caused by an “overly sensitive self-diagnosing
mechanism” of the VCM that was designed to prevent a repeat of the digital
lines that appeared on the ballots in the 2013 elections.

Bautista said there should be no cause for concern in spite of the
current technical issues.

“The problems have been contained. It is good that we discover these
things now than later when we could no longer correct or improve them,” he
said.

With 88 days before the polls, there is still time to fix these
problems, the Comelec said.

***

The Comelec was supposed to start printing ballots last Monday, but
postponed this to Feb. 15 after the poll body discovered that it needed to
rebuild the source code for the election management system. This as the Supreme
Court has yet to rule on the eligibility of Sen. Grace Poe whether she can run
or not. Will the Comelec still print the names of top candidates in the ballots
san an SC ruling?

The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections on Tuesday said the
Comelec is behind schedule in the printing of ballots, and compounding the
delay with other technical problems may force the poll body to suspend
elections in some regions or localities.

***

This, as Senate President
Franklin Drilon slammed the Comelec for creating an atmosphere of fear based on
unfounded assumptions that elections will not push through in some areas in the
country.

“I don’t know what they are talking about, the glitches. This is
something that can be addressed immediately so that the election will not be
postponed,” Drilon said in a press dispatch.

Less than three months before the May 9 polls, more errors
have been discovered in the source codes of the automated election system
(AES).

Bautista said SLI Global Solutions Inc. notified the Comelec that there
were problems with the source codes of the consolidation and canvassing system
(CCS) and the vote counting machines (VCM).

Based in Denver, SLI was contracted by Comelec to certify the source
codes of the VCM, CCS and Election Management System (EMS) before they are put
together for use in the coming polls.

***

Last Monday, Comelec had to postpone depositing the source codes at the
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas after SLI detected compatibility problems in the
CCS.

SLI found that while the CCS had to be “stand alone,” the system was
found to be “network dependent.” This prompted the Comelec to re-do the
“trusted build” of the EMS, which serves as the brain of the entire system.

Just like the VCM, the CCS was supplied by the joint venture of
Smartmatic. According to SLI senior test manager Michael Santos, the firm also
found that the ISO image in the CCS source code could not be installed during
the trusted build process.

***

“That necessitates a rebuild of the trusted build of the CCS ISO image.
We don’t see it actually during the build process itself but once we got done
building that image, we sent it to the laboratory, we went to install it and
realized there was an issue,” Santos explained.

During the testing of the VCM, SLI also found that it could detect
even small ink spots, causing the machines to reject the ballots. The VCM
posted one- to two-percent rejection rate.

“Just a couple of spots in the ballots, the VCM detecting them and
rejecting them, which is a good thing because it is showing that it’s capable
enough to catch just about any mark,” Santos said.

***

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez maintained that the issue should not be
a cause of concern. Jimenez said that to address the problem, the threshold of
the sensitivity of the VCM would be adjusted.

Bautista explained the Comelec could not turn off the detection feature
of the VCM as it was meant to address the problems on digital lines, which he
described as a “dangerous ailment” that surfaced on the ballots in the 2013
elections.

He gave assurance that the Comelec would be reviewing its contact with
Smartmatic-TIM to determine if the joint venture can be held liable for the
errors.

The Comelec chief also maintained that despite the technical issues in
the machines, there is no cause for concern.

***

“The problems have been contained. It is good that we discover these
things now than later when we could no longer correct or improve them,” he
said.

Bautista expressed confidence that the printing of official ballots
would be completed by April 25 as scheduled since the ballots would be shorter
by four inches, from 27 inches in 2013 elections.

“We are just fine-tuning the system… we still have 88 days. We still
have time. The problems now are still manageable,” he added.

That is what the Comelec is saying. But when poll day comes and problems
such as reliability of Smartmatic machines is still in question, what will the
big shots at Comelec do?